Voices United

Please join us for a night of story-focused songwriting, featuring four local singer/songwriter acts:

Wilder Adkins, Timber, Early James & The Latest, and Sarah Gurganus.

The Crisis Center sees an average of 30 sexual assault survivors each month for medical and forensic examination services in our S.A.N.E. Clinic. In 2016, our Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (S.A.N.E.) facility provided forensic exams and medical care for 376 survivors of sexual assault. With the combination of our nurses' specialized forensic training and the use of high-tech equipment specifically designed to collect forensic evidence in assault cases, we are able to collect more evidence in a more private environment than a standard hospital emergency room. We know that only a small fraction of survivors of sexual assault comes forward, but we believe that as we are able to collect better evidence and help bring justice against more perpetrators, our survivors will live in a better, safer community where they can confidently come forward to report their assaults. At this very special fundraising event, we will come together as a community for our survivors to help ensure that this important program continues to help create a safer place for all people.

Proceeds raised at this event will go to provide medical care to clients who visit our S.A.N.E. facility.

Wilder Adkins - The past year has been a standout for Birmingham’s Wilder Adkins. Adkins released a new album (Hope & Sorrow), toured the UK, performed at NYC’s Lincoln Center, won the prestigious New Song Music Songwriting Competition, played at the Sundance Film Festival, and fathered a son - his first. Adkins’ songwriting gleans as much from the earthy poetry of Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver as it does from the works of folk luminaries Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn. He’s a true theosophical spirit, arrestingly taciturn, but possessed of startling guitar skills, a wit as dry as October leaves, and a tremulous, dented voice that’s frankly mesmerizing. His courtly-but-witty lyrics evoke a Deep South Shelley or Yeats, riding a joyful guitar dexterity. He grew up listening to his dad play renditions of Neil Young and Van Morrison songs on an old Guild Jumbo Acoustic. Some time spent in India helped to expand his melodic sense and also provided a chance to learn Hindi. Adkins’ songs, steeped in natural imagery, frequently touch upon the subjects of faith, doubt, and as the title of his new album would indicate, hope and sorrow.

Listen To Wilder

Timber is a collaboration between Janet Simpson and Will Stewart — two veteran musicians who came together in that most natural of ways: In a pinch.

Stewart, an Alabama native currently based in Nashville along with the rest of the band, Willie and the Giant, was working on his Coosa EP when it was suggested that Simpson — a multi-faceted, Birmingham, Alabama based musician known for her work in Wooden Wand, Delicate Cutters, and Teen Getaway — to lend her talents to the proceedings. Pressed for time, Simpson came to the studio that day, spent an hour adding keys and her sumptuous voice to a few of Stewart’s songs, and left to catch a plane for a European tour with Wooden Wand.

Last summer, out of the blue, Stewart e-mailed Simpson about writing together. Impressed by Stewart’s melodic gifts and easy demeanor, Simpson accepted the offer. Soon they began trading songs via e-mail, giving each other notes along the way. Once a small batch of similarly-themed compositions made itself apparent, the two met at 2734 Central Recording Studio in Birmingham, AL — working, once again, with producer Lester Nuby — to record their self-titled debut.

Though the two had been exchanging songs online, Simpson and Stewart did not know much about each other, much less how to go about recording their new compositions. Over coffee they talked about productions they were currently enamored with, including albums by Teenage Fanclub, Yo La Tengo, D’Angelo, and Neil Young — particularly After The Gold Rush. Caffeinated and invigorated, the two began crafting the album — splitting the instrumental duties, keeping things simple, and embracing spontaneous moments. Per Stewart’s suggestion, they drafted Nashville musician Scott Murray to add pedal steel, utilizing the instrument’s gorgeous washes of sound for atmosphere rather than staid, Americana twang.

After releasing their self-titled EP in in late 2015, Timber are set to release the single "Sunstroke" on November 19th. "Sunstroke" is a composition that is sonically lush with meditative lyrics; invoking hazy imagery that coaxes the listener to join in on the gauzy daydream. Timber issues the warning, "Got to get you outta my head / before it's too late" - leaving an open-ended sense of anxiety, which culminates in a frenetic guitar break to end the song with a cathartic release. Timber are currently working to finalize their debut full-length album, which is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2017. 

Listen To Timber

Listen To Early James & The Latest

Listen To Sarah Gurganus